Accused Of Killing

FORT PIERCE -- A 41-year-old Fort Pierce man fatally kicked and choked his golden Labrador puppy while his 6-year-old son begged him to stop, police said. Tracy Thomas Culley, an independent construction contractor, was arrested Thursday on charges of cruelty to animals and child abuse, according to a Fort Pierce police report. Culley grew angry after he got home from work Feb. 21 and learned the dog had chewed a small hole in the garden hose, the report said. He took the dog's kennel into the back yard and attempted to lure it from hiding, the report said.

A Sanford judge today found an Oviedo mother accused of murdering her 17-year-old daughter in a botched homicide-suicide attempt to be mentally incompetent and ordered her to a state mental hospital. Sujatha Guduru, 44, is charged with first-degree murder. Defense attorney Brian Bieber says she's hallucinating and cannot understand what's going on in her legal case. Two psychologists have evaluated her - Deborah Day and Daniel Tressler - and both agree that she is mentally incompetent to stand trial, Bieber said.

Eddie James, a Casselberry man accused of killing Elizabeth ''Betty'' Dick, 58, and her granddaughter, Toni Neuner, 8, will face new charges of raping the girl, police said.On Tuesday, the 32-year-old drifter was charged with sexual battery after the Seminole County medical examiner told state prosecutors he had medical evidence proving that the girl was alive when she was raped, sheriff's spokesman Ed McDonough said.A grand jury in October indicted James on first-degree murder charges in the Sept.

Christopher Haag told South Daytona police he was asleep while an intruder killed his wife of six years. Investigators found Rosemarie Haag, 45, lying in a pool of blood about 1 a.m. Monday in the hall near the front door of the condominium the couple shared on Banana Cay Drive. She had "extensive head trauma," an arrest report shows. Officers soon doubted Haag's story. Signs of a struggle were obvious, according to the report: several large holes in the walls, stained clothing strewn about, a clump of red hair in a dog's cage that matched the victim's and severe rug burn on her back.

A Silicon Valley computer worker went on trial Monday on charges of killing seven people in a 1988 shooting rampage allegedly prompted by his obsession with a co-worker. Richard Farley, 42, is accused of killing seven employees at ESL Inc., a Sunnyvale defense manufacturer, in February 1988. Police said Farley walked into the plant with nearly 100 pounds of weaponry and began firing after his attentions were rebuffed by Laura Black, a 29-year-old engineer. Black was wounded in the shoulder but survived.

A 45-year-old Polish woman allegedly killed her live-in boyfriend with a kitchen knife because he called her old, PAP news agency reported Monday. The regional prosecutor in the southern town of Bytom said both the woman and her 48-year-old partner were drunk.

The trial of a Deltona man accused of killing his ex-wife and her unborn child was rescheduled Monday at the request of the man's attorney.Michael Garner, 25, is now scheduled to be tried starting Aug. 11 on charges that he murdered his ex-wife, Angelica ''Angel'' Garner, 23, who was nine months pregnant, on Aug. 7, 1996.Angel Garner was killed by a single gunshot wound to the back of the head, and sheriff's deputies found her body under a freshly poured concrete slab at the side of Michael Garner's home two days after she disappeared.

A man has been charged with killing a cougar that had been released as part of a program to save the endangered Florida panther. Daniel H. Bynum, 40, is accused of killing the cougar with a bow and arrow near his Haylow home in April, which is not hunting season, wildlife officials said Thursday. The cougar, which had a radio monitoring collar, had been missing since April 17. Florida wildlife officials released the cat and nine others in the south Georgia-north Florida area in February to determine if it was a suitable habitat for cougars, a cousin of the panther.

Despite objections from the State Attorney's Office, Circuit Judge O.H. Eaton appointed a public defender Friday for a man accused of killing his ex-wife this month.San Francisco Guongo, 42, had asked for a court-appointed lawyer. Guongo, arrested in Rochester, N.Y., Feb. 10, is charged with first-degree murder. He is being held in a New York jail.Guongo is not entitled to a court-appointed lawyer, Assistant State Attorney Steve Plotnick argued, because he is not in the county's jurisdiction and is fighting extradition.

One of Haiti's most wanted men, accused of killing two U.S. Embassy employees last November, was in custody after a two-month manhunt Wednesday. Dominican Republic authorities handed College Francois over to Haitian police at their border Tuesday. Officials have identified the Haitian man as the leading suspect in the November killing and robbery of two Haitian citizens employed by the U.S. Embassy as they transported more than $40,000 in cash and checks. Francois has not been formally tried for the crime.

A 23-year-old man suspected of fatally stabbing a man near Longwood late Friday was charged with murder. Justin Glenn Miller of Casselberry was apprehended Saturday and charged with first-degree murder. The victim is Mark A. Vincent, 32. Miller was interviewed Saturday afternoon and later booked into the John E. Polk Correctional Facility in Sanford and held without bond. He is set for a first-appearence hearing at 9 a.m. Sunday. Deputies responded to a stabbing at 10:20 p.m. Friday in the 800 block of N. U.S. Highway 17-92 near Longwood.

The star-crossed teen lovers accused of killing Windermere Officer Robert German killed themselves with single gunshots to the head. Orange-Osceola Medical Examiner's Office confirmed that detail this week after autopsies of the teenagers - Brandon Goode, 18, and Alexandria "Alex" Hollinghurst, 17. Authorities previously said the teens apparently committed suicide after gunning down German early March 22. Windermere police also released a...

A registered sex offender facing Death Row in the abduction, rape and murder of 8-year-old Cherish Perrywinkle will not go on trial in Jacksonville until October. Circuit Judge Mallory Cooper agreed Wednesday to delay the trial of Donald James Smith, 57, until Oct. 6 with a death penalty phase set to start Oct. 13, if needed. The trial had been set to begin May 12. Attorneys for Smith asked for the delay and said they would not have time to be prepared by May. Prosecutors did not oppose the motion for continuance.

For months, child-welfare officials had concerns that Rachel Fryer was an unfit mother and, at various times, objected to her regaining custody. But ultimately, the 32-year-old and her children were reunited, and it wasn't long before Fryer's life began to crumble. She couldn't afford rent. She didn't have enough money for food. Beds she rented for the kids - ages 2, 3, 4 and 7 - were returned because she couldn't afford them. On Jan. 30 - two months after Fryer and the children were reunited - a court-appointed child-advocate requested a hearing over "pressing concerns" about the Sanford family.

On Jan. 21, six days before her daughter was shot in the head, Sujatha Guduru went to a small, local gun store, picked out a .38-caliber revolver and filled out the form that all new gun buyers must complete. On it, she checked the box that said she had no history of mental illness that would prohibit her from lawfully owning a gun, according to Oviedo police. Four days later — one day longer than the statutory three-day cooling off period for new gun purchases — Guduru returned to the store and picked up her purchase, said police spokesman Lt. Mike Beavers.

Osceola County prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against a father who is accused of beating his 3-month-old son so severely last year that the boy died, court records show. Larry Darnell Perry, 29, of St. Cloud called 911 about 10:40 p.m. on Feb. 13, 2013 and admitted that he hurt his young son who was suffering from colic. Perry is accused of slamming his son, Ayden, against a wall, kicking him and strangling him before calling 911. As Perry spoke to a 911 dispatcher, the child could be heard dying in the background, according to police.

The Orange County man accused of killing his pregnant wife and one of their unborn twins was denied bail during his first appearance before a judge on Saturday. Michael Boyce, 33, was initially set to see the judge Friday afternoon but that hearing was canceled when authorities placed him on suicide watch. He was dressed in a protective vest and handcuffs Saturday. Deputies say Boyce shot 23-year-old Alexis Boyce in the head at their Nikki Court apartment Thursday afternoon. The two had been married about a year and Alexis was eight months pregnant with twin boys.